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Orientation at Puget Sound is just the beginning of many events and activities involving students, faculty, staff, and neighbors of the university. All Puget Sound students are encouraged to learn about and embrace the university’s history by participating in its Logger traditions, some which date back many decades and others that began more recently.

Fall Traditions

  • Prelude, Passages & Perspectives welcome first-year students to Puget Sound.
  • On the First Friday of the Fall term, Puget Sound celebrates the beginning of the year with an all-campus festival – First Friday LogJam! – in the late afternoon and evening – with food, entertainment, and athletic and carnival activities on Todd Field.
  • The Activities Fair, part of First Friday LogJam!, is a perfect opportunity for students to connect with organizations and activities on campus.
  • Greek Recruitment for new transfer students and upper-class students will occur in October.
  • Kla How Ya is an array of programs in the first six weeks of fall semester, designed to kick-off the academic year here at Puget Sound.
  • The Swope Lecture series brings guest lecturers on the subject of faith, ethics, values or religion.
  • Homecoming - In addition to alumni returning to campus, there will be the traditional Logger football game, residence hall decorating contests, and Songfest.
  • Students coordinate awareness and educational events during National Coming Out Day in October.
  • Pierce Lecture Series - The lecture series brings to campus public intellectuals, writers, and artists of high recognition and focuses classroom and co-curricular activities on the speaker's work. Typically the series sponsors two lectures in a given academic year.
  • Fall Family Weekend - The University welcomes to campus the families of Puget Sound students. A variety of events are planned that may include athletic events, music and/or theatre productions, and an opportunity for parents to attend class with their student.
  • Regester Lecture - The lecture series is a means of honoring members of the University faculty through an opportunity for them to address the University community on a subject of particular interest to the lecturer.
  • The annual Thanksgiving Fast for Hunger encourages the campus to donate to local foodbanks and other charities.
  • Mistletoast, featuring a crafts fair, big band dancing, and lots of great food, is how Puget Sound welcomes the winter holiday season, typically on the first Friday in December. We also celebrate the advent season with a Festival of Lessons and Carols and Adelphian Choir winter concerts in Kilworth Chapel.

Spring Traditions

  • The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration & February’s Black History Month coincide with the beginning of the Spring semester and bring the campus and Tacoma communities together.
  • Greek Recruitment occurs in January for women and February for men this spring.
  • The annual Senior Class Dinner.
  • Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues, produced and acted by students, is performed to sold-out crowds in February.
  • Japanese-American Internment Day is acknowledged each February. Signs that bear the names of Puget Sound students of Japanese ancestry whose education was interrupted (by their relocation to internment campus at the onset of World War II) are placed underneath the cherry trees outside Wheelock Student Center.
  • Casino Night, a fun event sponsored by the Resident Student Association, which raises money for charity.
  • ASUPS Spring Family Weekend - An annual spring festival in April that is always highlighted by the Hui-O-Hawaii Lu’au.
  • The Senior Theatre Festival is a wonderful opportunity each weekend in April to witness the outstanding work of theatre arts and many members of the student body in a collection of performed plays.
  • The Jewish Student Organization sponsors the campus Passover Seder in April.
  • Spring Family Weekend celebrates the ending of the academic year with outdoor music and barbecues, a concert, the 5-k Puget Pacer run, and lots of fun.
  • The Senior Class Party, Academic Convocation, Lavender Graduates Celebration, Graduates of Color Reception, Baccalaureate, and Commencement are major events of Graduation Weekend.

Yearlong Traditions

  • Every Friday at Puget Sound is Maroon Friday as folks on campus show Logger pride and spirit by wearing the traditional Maroon and White.
  • Logger athletic teams compete for Puget Sound as student, faculty, staff, and alumni cheer them on.
  • Each semester RDG (Repertory Dance Group) wows campus with a dance concert, involving over a 200 students.